I've seen a countless amount of amazing performances this year both in plays and in musicals so it's been incredibly hard to narrow down this list. It seems as though 2016 has blessed us with such a huge and wide variety of stage talent that I've found myself with far too many to pick from but nonetheless, here are what I consider to be the 10 best of the year and why...

As I said earlier, I made 100 theatre visits in 2016 and almost 50% of them were to see incredible new plays in London. Some were artistic and inspiring, but some were equally dull and dry. Here, I have sifted through those 48 new plays I saw this year and decided on 10 of the best. And as you might notice, a majority of them after from the National Theatre or the Royal Court...

I saw exactly 100 shows this year and over a third of those were musicals that opened in 2016. I've been eagerly waiting to whittle them down into a list of 10 all year long and alas, here were are! From a trio of Dreams to Fanny Brice herself, London has seen some fantastic musicals grace the stage this year. Be sure to click on the show title to read my full review of the show, too!

Bernard Shaw is a playwright that fascinates me: he has always been a man that has struck me as being "before his time" in many ways - from Major Barbra to Pygmalion - but Saint Joan really is the epitome of that to me. Despite being written in the 1920s, this new production mirrors the feminist issues risen in the play perfectly and it's more necessary than ever.

I have an intense passion for one-scene plays and I also have a love for Lucy Kirkwood, so it's safe to say the The Children was a natural fit for me. There is something so unique about Kirkwood's way of seeing life and she brings that to the stage perfectly in anything she touches and The Children is no exception. It's a play that tells a unique story in such a clever way, and it works oh so well.

I first reviewed Dreamgirls about six weeks ago following its first public performance in previews (one of the best nights of my theatrical life) and I didn’t hold back in gushing about how much I loved it; the review was read and shared around by so many of you that it’s one of the most read things I’ve ever written – even Amber Riley herself thanked me for writing the review via Twitter.

Dreamgirls has been and always will be one of my favourite musicals of all time so I'm sure we can all appreciate how much the London premiere production - opening tonight at the Savoy Theatre - has excited me. And to celebrate just that, I sat down with one of the show's biggest stars Liisi LaFontaine who plays Deena Jones to talk about the show's landmark arrival...

I was excited for this trilogy of all-female Shakespeare plays directed by Phyllida Lloyd from the moment they were announced: there's something about immersive experiences in the theatre that really captivate me and this one set inside an all-women's prison was no exception. It was a unique and harrowing double-layered theatrical experience that made me see Shakespeare in a new light.

I categorically do not like jukebox musicals, so I feel like that's something I might need to start this review with. There is something about them that really does not appeal to me and I think there are only about three of them that I truly like, so I knew before I even went into this show that I wasn't going to love it and unfortunately, my predictions were correct on this particular evening.